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Case  of  Russian  Labor 
Against  Bolshevism 

(Facts  and  Documents) 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

Russian  Information  Bureau  in  the  U.  S, 

WOOWORTH    BUILDING 
WW  YORK  CITY 


The 

Case  of  Russian  Labor 

Against  Bolshevism 

(Facts  and  Documents) 


a     •    '»  •       »     » 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

Russian  Information  Bureau  in  the  U.  S. 

WOOLWORTH     BUILDING 
NEW    YORK    CITY 


PRESERVATION 
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9  1S94 


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•  •  •• •  . 


Introduction 


The  Russian  situation  at  this  moment  may  be  summed  up 
as  follows:  While  the  Bolsheviki  are  still  able  to  control, 
through  armed  force,  a  part  of  Central  Russia,  the  people  of 
Russia,  led  by  the  greatest  Russian  liberal  and  revolutionary  lead- 
ers, are  waging  an  open  war  against  the  Bolshevist  usurpers. 
When  we  speak  about  the  people  of  Russia  we  have  in  mind, 
as  far  as  social  classes  are  concerned,  not  only  the  Russian  middle 
class,  but  also,  and  especially,  the  Russian  peasantry  and  work- 
ingmen  who  are  constantly  rising  against  the  Bolshevist  tyranny. 

As  far  as  the  Russian  political  parties  are  concerned,  not  only 
the  liberals,  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  but  also  the 
People's  Socialists,  the  Social-Democrats  Mensheviki  and  the 
Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists  are  engaged  in  open  war  with 
the  Bolshevist  usurpers  and  will  not  cease  this  war  until  political 
liberties  and  democratic  institutions  are  reestablished  in  the 
country.  The  people  of  Russia,  guided  by  such  leaders  as  Cath- 
erine Breshkovsky  and  Nicholas  Tchaikovsky,  will  not  cease  their 
efforts  to  break  the  new  tryanny  and  to  bring  about,  through  an 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly,  the  rule  of  democracy  in 
Russia. 

As  Catherine  Breshkovsky  The  "Grandmother  of  the  Rus- 
sian Revolution/'  said  in  her  wonderful  "Message  to  the 
American  People,"  "The  demand  for  a  Constituent  Assembly 
was  one  of  the  main  aspirations  of  the  Russian  Revolution. 
It  was  on  the  eve  of  its  realization  when  the  Bolshevist 
revolt,  in  November,  1917,  tore  out  of  the  hands  of  the  people 
the  beautiful  possibility  to  make  laws  for  themselves,  to  trace 
the  path  for  their  future,  to  construct  a  new  life  in  accordance 
with  the  interests  of  the  masses,  to  strengthen  peace  and  insure 
the  common  welfare." 

The  Constituent  Assembly,  which  convened  in  Petrograd  in 
January,  1918,  was  elected  by  the  entire  Russian  people  on  the 
basis  of  universal,  direct,  equal  and  secret  suffrage,  with  women 
and  soldiers  participating  in  the  voting.  The  elections  took  place 
after  the  Bolsheviki  had  come  into  power,  but,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  these  elections  took  place  during  the  honeymoon  of  the 
Bolshevist  rule,  when  their  promise  of  an  immediate,  general  and 
democratic  peace  had  not  yet  resulted  in  a  shameful,  separate 
peace  with  the  German  militarists,  and  the  promise  of  bread  had 
not  yet  resulted  in  a  general  starvation,  Russia  as  a  nation  repu- 


3G52 


dj^tfd  ;th^r  Bolshevist  tfule^ and  the  majority  in  the  Constituent 
Assembly  Was  h^d-by^the^'Socialists-Revolutionists.  The  results 
are  well  known.  The  Bolsheviki  dispersed  the  parliament  of  the 
Russian  people  with  bayonets. 

Since  then  Russia  is  not  free.  A  great  part  of  our  country 
is  ruled  by  a  group  of  usurpers  who  camouflage  their  terrorism 
and  tyranny  by  democratic  phraseology.  In  the  name  of  the 
"proletariat"  they  have  suppressed  not  only  the  Liberal,  but  also 
the  entire  Socialist  press.  In  the  name  of  the  "working  people" 
they  have  filled  up  the  prisons  with  workingmen  and  peasants 
and  have  proclaimed  "enemies  of  the  people"  not  only  the  Con- 
stitutional-Democratic Party,  but  also  the  Party  of  Socialists- 
Revolutionists  and  the  Social-Democrats  Mensheviki,  that  is, 
the  parties  of  the  Russian  peasantry  and  proletariat. 

The  Bolsheviki  came  into  power  by  violence  and  they  have 
sustained  themselves  in  power  by  violence  and  terrorism.  Their 
main  support,  the  so-called  Red  Army,  are  well  paid  and  well  fed 
while  thousands  are  daily  dying  from  starvation  in  the  cities  and 
towns  of  Russia.  "Flooded  with  tears  and  blood,  Russia  moans 
and  cries  out  to  the  world,"  says  Catherine  Breshkovsky.  "She 
is  a  living  body,  and  her  tortures  cannot  be  looked  upon  cold- 
bloodedly as  an  extraordinary,  never-before-witnessed  experi- 
ment in  social  evolution.  She  is  alive,  and  every  pore  of  her 
body  is  shedding  blood." 

Every  pore  of  her  body  is  shedding  blood.  She  is  struggling 
for  her  existence  and  freedom.  Those  who  struggle  for  democ- 
racy in  Russia  will  defend  her  against  the  red  reaction  of  Bol- 
shevism as  well  as  against  the  possible  black  reaction  of  Tzarism. 
The  Russian  democrats  struggling  against  Bolshevism  stand  for 
the  establishment  in  Russia  of  a  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people  and  for  the  people.  Here,  as  in  almost  everything 
else,  the  present  generation  of  Russia  agrees  with  the  dear 
"Grandmother,"  who  says:  "Our  greatest,  deepest,  most  imme- 
diate need  is  the  creation  of  conditions  under  which  the  Russian 
people  will  be  able  to  convoke  an  All-Russian  Constituent  As- 
sembly. Russia  will  never  be  quiet  and  satisfied  until  her  repre- 
sentatives, freely  chosen  by  the  entire  population,  will  establish  a 
Constitution  for  the  State,  will  lay  the  foundation  for  a  stable, 
democratic  government,  insuring  laws  that  accord  with  the  will 
and  desires  of  the  Russian  people." 

A.  J.   SACK, 
Director  of  the  Russian  Information 

June  10,  1919.  Bureau  in  the  U.  S. 


1. — The  Arrest  of  the  Labor 
Conference 

The  economic  and  financial  policy  of  Bolshevism  has  resulted 
in  a  crushing  fiasco,  and  the  agonies  of  starvation,  instead  of  the 
promised  paradise,  have  turned  the  Russian  workingmen  and 
peasants  against  the  Bolshevist  regime.  The  following  appeal, 
issued  by  the  Workingmen's  Delegates  arrested  by  the  Bolsheviki 
and  kept  in  the  Tagansky  Prison  in  Moscow,  fully  reflects  the 
sentiment  of  the  masses  of  the  Russian  proletariat  since  the  spring 
of  1918: 

"We,  the  members  of  the  Labor  Conference,  representing 
independent  working-class  organizations  of  various  towns  of 
Russia  (Petrograd,  Moscow,  Tula,  Sormovo,  Kolomna,  Kulebaki, 
Tver,  Nizhni-Novgorod,  Vologda,  Orel,  Votkinski  Savod),  having 
been  arrested  at  our  second  meeting,  on  the  23rd  of  July,  1918,  in 
'Cooperation  Hall/  feel  it  our  public  duty  to  protest  before  all 
citizens  of  Russia  against  the  false  and  calumnious  reports  pub- 
lished by  the  Bolshevist  Government  press  on  July  27  and  28.  The 
Bolshevist  government  takes  advantage  of  the  fact  that  it  has 
muzzled  the  whole  independent  press  and  that  we,  members  of  the 
Labor  Conference,  are  locked  up  in  prison  under  incredible  con- 
ditions. 

Our  conference  was  not  'a  secret  counter-revolutionary  plot 
organized  by  well-to-do  people  and  intellectuals/  etc.,  but  a  public 
conference  of  delegates  of  working-class  organizations,  which  was 
beforehand  known  to  and  discussed  by  the  whole  press,  including 
that  of  the  Bolsheviki. 

The  delegates  were  sent  to  the  Conference  not  by  'Menshevik 
or  Social-Revolutionary  groups/  as  falsely  stated  in  the  Izvestia,* 
which  desires  to  deceive  workmen  who  have  not  yet  deserted  the 
government,  but  by  assemblies  of  delegates  from  works  and  fac- 
tories having  tens  of  thousands  of  electors  behind  them.  The 
adopted  general  basis  of  representation  was  one  delegate  for  5,000 
workmen.    The  Izvestia  goes  so  far  as  to  state  shamelessly  that 

! 

*  An  official  Bolshevist  publication. 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 


the  delegates,  Polikarpoff  and  Pushkin,  sent  by  the  Tula  work- 
men, were  elected  by  60  to  160  men,  whereas  they  were  sent  by 
the  Tula  assembly,  which  consisted  of  delegates  elected  by  the 
majority  of  Tula  workmen.  At  places  where  independent  work- 
men's organizations  could  not  yet  be  set  up,  delegates  to  the  Con- 
ference were  sent  by  individual  big  factories. 

Having  calumniously  described  the  delegates  as  impostors 
who  represent  nobody,  the  Izvestia — with  the  insolence  character- 
istic of  the  organs  of  the  Tzarist  regime — did  not  stop  at  giving 
false  information  about  things  found  on  the  arrested  delegates 
in  order  to  cast  a  shadow  on  their  characters.  Thus,  it  is  reported 
that  Comrade  Berg  was  found  to  be  in  possession  of  6,000  roubles. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  he  had  only  590  roubles.  Comrade  Leikin  is 
stated  to  have  had  160  roubles,  and  he  had  in  fact  1  rouble  65 
kopeck.  The  Izvestia  further  states  that  on  Leikin  the  following 
things  were  found:  a  ring,  diamonds  and  a  gold  watch,  whereas 
all  his  'jewelry'  consisted  of  an  ordinary  gun-metal  watch,  which 
it  did  not  occur  even  to  the  prison  warders  to  take  away. 

The  Bolshevist  government  has  to  resort  to  stupid,  shameless 
lies  to  justify  the  preposterous  arrests  of  the  workmen's  delegates 
who  dared  to  show  some  independent  organizing  initiative. 

The  Conference  of  workmen's  delegates  was  convened  to 
make  arrangements  for  the  convocation  of  an  All-Russian  Labor 
Congress,  and  had  held  two  meetings.  The  agenda  of  the  Con- 
ference included  the  following  items:  measures  against  the  dis- 
integration of  the  working-class  movement ;  what  can  be  done  to 
effect  a  concentration  of  its  forces  and  its  proper  organization ; 
arrangements  for  the  All-Russian  Labor  Congress.  But  the 
Communist  Government,  just  as  its  Tzarist  predecessors,  does  not 
tolerate  any  symptoms  of  an  independent  working-class  move- 
ment which  constitutes  a  menace  to  its  power.  In  this  movement 
they  see  a  reflection  of  the  food  crisis,  and,  incapable  of  solving 
the  State  problems  which  they  have  before  them,  they  resort  to 
repressive  measures  directed  against  the  leaders  of  the  working- 
class  movement.  Workmen's  organizations  are  subjected  to 
unheard-of  persecutions ! 

Long  live  the  working-class  organizations ! 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 


Long  live  their  independence,  their  revolutionary  and  organ- 
izing initiative ! 

Signed:  A.  N.  Smirnoff,  workman  of  the  Cartridge  Factory, 
delegate  from  Petrograd;  N.  N.  Glieboff,  workman  at  the  Pouh 
tiloff  Works ;  J.  S.  Leikin,  delegate  of  the  Assembly  of  Delegates 
of  the  Nizhni  and  Vladimir  districts ;  D.  V.  Zakharoff,  secretary 
of  a  trade  union ;  D.  I.  Zakharoff,  Sormovo ;  V.  I.  Matveev,  Sor- 
movo ;  A.  A.  Vezkaln,  carpenter,  member  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Lettish  Social-Democrat  Party ;  I.  G.  Volkoff,  turner, 
member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Union  of 
Metal  Workers;  A.  A.  Chinenkoff,  Nizhni;  S.  P.  Polikarpoff, 
Tula ;  N.  K.  Borisenko,  Petrograd  Tube  Works ;  V.  G.  Chirkin, 
turner,  member  of  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Trade  Unions; 
Berg,  Electrical  Works ;  D.  Smirnoff,  Arsenal,  Petrograd ;  Victor 
Alter,  delegate  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  'Bund'  (Jew- 
ish Socialist  Party)  ;  Pushkin,  workman  of  the  Tula  Small  Arms 
Factory,  etc.,  etc." 

In  connection  with  this  affair,  the  following  cable  was  sent 
by  the  Central  Committees  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic 
Labor  Party  of  the  "Bund"  (Jewish  Socialist  Party)  to  the 
Executive  Committees  of  all  Socialist  parties  of  Europe  and 
America. 

"Forty  delegates,  elected  by  workmen  of  various  towns  to 
a  conference  for  the  purpose  of  making  arrangements  for  the 
convocation  of  a  Labor  Congress,  have  been  arrested  and  com- 
mitted for  trial  by  the  Supreme  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  created 
to  pass  death  sentences  without  the  ordinary  guarantees  of  a  fair 
trial.  They  are  falsely  and  calumniously  accused  of  organizing 
a  counter-revolutionary  plot.  Among  the  arrested  are  the  most 
prominent  workers  of  the  Social-Democratic  Labor  Movement, 
as,  for  instance,  Abramovitch,  member  of  the  Central  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party  and  of 
the  'Bund/  who  is  personally  well  known  to  many  foreign  com- 
rades; Alter,  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  'Bund'; 
Smirnoff,  member  of  last  year's  Soviet  delegation  to  the  Western 
Countries ;  Vezkaln,  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Lettish  Social-Democratic  Party ;  Volkoff,  chairman  of  the  Petro- 
grad  Union   of  Workmen's   Cooperative   Societies;   Zakharoff, 


8  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

secretary  of  the  Petrograd  Union  of  Workmen  of  Chemical  Fac- 
tories; and  other  prominent  workers  of  the  trade  union  and 
cooperative  movement. 

We  demand  the  immediate  intervention  of  all  Socialist  parties 
to  avert  the  shameful  and  criminal  proceeding." 

The  above-given  is  not  the  only  appeal  of  Russian  working- 
men  coming  from  behind  the  walls  of  a  Bolshevist  prison.  The 
well-known  revolutionist,  Vladimir  L.  Bourtzev,  in  his  paper 
"Obscheye  Dyelo"  (Common  Cause),  now  printed  in  Paris,  has 
published  the  following  appeal : 

"To  all  workmen,  to  all  citizens : 

We,  twelve  prisoners  in  the  Tagansky  prison  in  Moscow, 
twelve  captives  of  the  Bolshevist  government,  who  are  consid- 
ered 'an  extraordinary  commission  fighting  the  revolution,'  we 
appeal  to  you,  comrades  and  citizens,  from  behind  the  prison  walls 
and  bars  of  our  solitary  cells,  into  which  we  have  been  thrown 
by  the  Lenine  government. 

We,  laborers  and  old  fighters  for  the  Revolution  and  partici- 
pators in  the  proletarian  movement,  we  prison  inmates  under  the 
Tzar's  regime,  we  socialists,  are  deprived  of  our  liberty  by  a  gov- 
ernment of  'workmen  and  peasants,'  a  government  of  'a  socialist 
republic.' H 

The  appeal  describes  the  way  meetings  of  the  peasant  depu- 
ties in  Moscow  have  been  dispersed  and  arrests  made. 

"After  being  searched,"  the  appeal  reads,  "all  of  us,  58  people, 
including  50  laborers,  representatives  of  the  proletariat  of  Mos- 
cow, Petrograd  and  Tula,  were  driven  in  automobiles  to  Loo- 
bianka,*  to  the  well-known  Extraordinary  Commission.  We  were 
locked  up  in  an  ordinary  cell  and  given  nothing  to  eat  until  the 
next  morning.  During  the  night  each  of  us,  separately,  was  taken 
away  to  be  questioned.  Our  cross-examiners  were  rough  and 
ignorant  people  who  allowed  themselves  to  ridicule  and  make  fun 
of  some  of  the  laborers  and  even  to  threaten  them.  Some  of  them 
asked  us  whether  we  recognized  the  Soviet  government.  They 
tried  to  detect  suspected  Czecho-Slovaks  and  seemed  very  much 
interested  in  their  movements.  At  the  cross-examination  we  were 
accused  of  nothing.    The  nature  of  the  institution  before  which 


•  A  street  in  Moscow. 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 


we  were  brought  for  cross-examination,  however,  betrayed  itself 
in  the  kind  of  questions  put  to  some  of  us.  We  were  asked 
whether  we  conducted  any  propaganda  or  tried  to  find  comrades 
among  the  other  prisoners  while  waiting  for  a  hearing.  (Per- 
haps they  had  suspected  rebellion?)  Comrades  D.  C.  Kuchin,  K. 
Srausky  and  C.  G.  Rogov,  a  mechanics'  shop  worker,  were  kept 
in  isolation  until  the  next  morning,  because  of  suspicion.  The 
general  atmosphere  of  the  proceeding  was  that  of  the  most  corrupt 
espionage. 

The  chambers  of  that  building  in  Loobianka  were  filled  with 
people  of  most  different  standing  and  ages.  There  were  children 
as  well  as  old  people  who  had  been  in  seclusion  for  weeks  without 
a  hearing  and  without  any  accusation.  Comrades  and  Citizens! 
The  government  commits  the  greatest  follies.  Workmen  who  are 
looking  for  a  solution  of  their  difficulties  and  for  help  are  being 
subjected  to  the  worst  degradation.  The  government  treads  upon 
everything  the  people  have  wrung  from  the  Revolution,  upon 
everything  that  it  needs  as  urgently  as  it  needs  air  to  breathe. 
The  laborers  are  being  deprived  of  their  most  sacred  right,  free- 
dom of  assembly,  and  thus  are  rendered  helpless. 

Our  prison  slips  are  marked:  'guilty  of  counter-revolution- 
ary attempts.'  The  very  fact  that  we  have  been  arrested  and  our 
labor  meeting  in  the  socialist  club  has  been  dispersed,  is  proof 
enough  of  the  fact  that  the  present  government  falsely  bears  the 
name  of  'government  of  workmen/  Moreover,  tens  of  similar 
arrests  and  dispersions  of  labor  meetings,  accompanied  by  shoot- 
ings, have  taken  place. 

As  time  goes  on,  this  government  finds  more  and  more  people 
of  the  labor  class,  curiously  enough,  guilty  of  counter-revolution- 
ary activities.  As  a  result,  the  prisons  are  filled  with  workmen- 
socialists  as  in  the  times  of  the  old  regime. 

The  labor  class  is  in  danger!  The  government  of  the  com- 
missaries is  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  proletariat,  the  demo- 
crats, and  that  of  the  whole  country.  We,  the  twelve  captives  of 
the  Bolshevist  government,  who  are  responsible  workingmen- 
leaders  of  proletarian  organizations  and  socialist  parties,  declare 
that  we  herewith  rightfully  protest  against  our  arrest  and  the 
atrocious  infringement  on  the  laborers'  rights  to  organize — acts 


10  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

committed  by  the  agents  of  the  present  counter-revolutionary  gov- 
ernment on  June  13.  We  protest  against  the  cruel  procedure  in 
dealing  with  the  labor  class,  which,  on  the  brink  of  the  precipice, 
is  clamoring  for  the  rescue  of  Russia  and  the  laboring  classes.  We 
hope  that  our  voices  sounding  from  the  prison  will  be  heard  by 
wide  circles  of  the  labor  class  and  democrats! 

(Signed)  Labor  representatives:  T.  I.  Ivanov,  from  the  plant 
'Duks,'  President  of  the  Labor  Convention  of  June  23;  V.  S. 
Strakhin,  of  the  factory  'Liman' ;  P.  P.  Pomakhin,  of  the  printing 
establishment  'Zadrooga';  laborer  from  the  mechanics'  shop  of 
Nesmieyanov,  S.  G.  Rogov ;  laborer  of  the  plant  'Bromley/  Y.  V. 
Matrieyev  (a  miller)  ;  President  of  the  Smelters'  Branch  of  the 
Professional  Union  of  Metal  Workers,  deputy  of  the  laborers 
from  the  plant  of  Briansk,  and  member  of  the  Briansk  Council  of 
Workmen  deputies,  K.  D.  Ulyanov ;  secretary  of  the  All-Russian 
Labor  Union  of  printers,  M.  S.  Kamermakher-Kef ali ;  member 
of  the  central  committee  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Party, 
A.  R.  Troyanovski ;  member  of  the  Constitutional  Assembly  and 
of  the  central  committee  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Party, 
G.  D.  Kuchin ;  member  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Moscow 
Soviet  of  Workmen's  Deputies  and  Secretary  of  the  Moscow 
committee  of  the  Social-Democratic  Party ;  B.  V.  Malkin ;  member 
of  the  Social-Democratic  organization  'Yedinstvo'  ('Unity'),  A.  D. 
Borodulin;  member  of  the  Social-Revolutionary  Party,  L.  V. 
Freifeld." 


2. — The  Suppression  of  the 
Labor  Press 


The  Russian  workingmen  and  peasants  and  the  Russian 
democracy  in  general,  which  fought  the  Tsar's  regime  in  the  name 
of  liberty,  are  fighting  and  will  fight  the  Bolshevist  tyranny  in  the 
name  of  the  same  sacred  principle.  In  endeavoring  to  fight  the 
"bourgeoisie,"  the  Bolshevist  rulers  have  suppressed  not  only  the 
liberal,  but  the  entire  Socialist  press  as  well.  And  here  is  an 
appeal  issued  in  Petrograd  and  signed  by  the  following  organiza- 
tions :  Committee  for  the  Defense  of  Freedom  of  the  Press ;  Cen- 
tral Committee  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party; 
Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists; 
Central  Committee  of  the  Councils  of  Peasant  Deputies  and  the 
All-Russian  Union  of  Typographical  Workers. 

"Comrades  and  Citizens!  The  wicked  work  of  violating 
democratic  rights  becomes  daily  more  disastrous,  both  for  the 
further  development  of  the  Revolution  and  our  freedom  won  by 
it.  Civil  War  has  inflamed  the  whole  country.  Cities  are  being 
destroyed.  The  war  of  brother  against  brother  is  consuming  the 
strength  of  our  revolutionary  democracy.  The  cannon,  secured 
to  guard  the  conquests  of  our  Revolution,  shatter  monuments, 
homes,  and  shrines  of  art.  The  cities  of  Russia  fall  at  the  hands 
of  her  own  citizens. 

"Workmen  and  Soldiers !  The  Revolution  took  place  in  order 
to  secure  and  preserve  the  rights  of  the  people.  However,  in  their 
blind  madness,  the  irreconcilable  fanatics  destroy  both  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  Revolution  and  the  country.  The  democratic  activi- 
ties of  the  laborers  are  being  suppressed.  The  nation  is  being 
driven  towards  ruin.  The  people  are  deprived  of  all  liberties  won 
by  the  Revolution.  Those  who  claim  to  be  the  'Rulers'  have 
enough  to  hide.  Therefore,  they  make  you  keep  your  mouth  shut 
and  stifle  the  Revolution,  which  clings  to  the  ruins  of  destroyed 
cities,  propitiated  by  the  blood  of  murdered  brothers.  The  press 
has  become  an  illegal  organ.  Freedom  of  the  press  is  now  the 
privilege  of  only  one  party,  i.e.,  the  Bolsheviki.    The  Revolution- 


12  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

ists  do  not  have  the  floor.  As  in  prerevolutionary  times,  we  are 
made  to  believe  that  Russia  prospers,  for  the  people  'do  not  com- 
plain.' 

"In  these  days,  when  only  a  small  group  of  exploiters  an- 
nounce the  approach  of  a  socialistic  state,  the  stifled  Revolution, 
bled  to  exhaustion  in  the  civil  war,  uses  the  last  drop  of  its  strength 
to  proclaim  'Hail,  the  freedom  of  the  press  V 

"To  be  sure,  there  is  no  need  for  a  truly  democratic  power 
to  fear  criticism  and  public  opinion.  Only  those  who  represent 
the  minority  and  are  anxious  to  persist  in  power,  have  to  have 
recourse  to  such  measures  as  repression. 

"Freedom  of  the  press  has  been  won  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people.  The  printers  appeal  to  all  proletarians  and  citizens 
to  support  them  in  their  fight  for  freedom  of  the  press,  not  because 
they  want  to  protect  their  professional  interests,  but  the  demo- 
cratic rights  of  the  whole  nation. 

"During  the  dark  days  of  the  counter-revolution  in  June,  the 
printers  stood  firmly  for  freedom  of  the  press.  During  the  first 
months  of  the  great  Russian  Revolution,  the  efforts  of  the  print- 
ers, in  pointing  out  the  demands  of  the  Revolution,  brought  light 
to  the  dark  masses.  Now,  when  the  new  regime  with  its  singular 
laws  builds  supports  for  a  counter-revolution,  we  unfurl  again 
the  banner  of  the  fight  for  freedom  of  the  press.  We  beg  and 
demand,  and  hope  to  be  supported  by  all  democrats." 


3. — Curbing  the  Activities  of  the 
Trade  Unions 


In  the  Bolshevist  publication,  the  "Northern  Commune,"  of 
September  13,  1918,  we  find  the  following  decree  regulating  the 
right  of  public  associations  and  meetings : 

"(1)  All  societies,  unions  and  associations — political,  eco- 
nomic, artistic,  religious,  etc. — formed  on  the  territory  of  the 
Union  of  the  Commune  of  the  Northern  Region  must  be  regis- 
tered at  the  corresponding  Soviets  or  Committees  of  the  Village 
Poor. 

"(2)  The  constitution  of  the  union  or  society,  a  list  of 
founders  and  members  of  the  committee,  with  names  and  ad- 
dresses, and  a  list  of  all  members,  with  their  names  and  ad- 
dresses, must  be  submitted  at  registration. 

"(3)  All  books,  minutes,  etc.,  must  always  be  kept  at  the 
disposal  of  representatives  of  the  Soviet  power  for  the  purpose 
of  revision. 

"(4)  Three  days'  notice  must  be  given  to  the  Soviet,  or  to 
the  Committee  of  the  Village  Poor,  of  all  public  and  private 
meetings. 

"(5)  All  meetings  must  be  open  to  the  representatives  of 
the  Soviet  power,  viz.,  the  representatives  of  the  Central  and  Dis- 
trict Soviet,  the  Committee  of  the  Poor,  and  the  Kommandatur 
of  the  Revolutionary  Secret  Police  Force. 

"(6)  Unions  and  societies  which  do  not  comply  with  those 
regulations  will  be  regarded  as  counter-revolutionary  organiza- 
tions and  prosecuted." 

The  first  document  shows  that  even  those  publications  the 
tendencies  of  which  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Bolshevist 
leaders,  are  permitted  to  exist  only  until  the  requirements  of  the 
population  "are  adequately  met  by  the  Soviet  publications."  As 
a  result  there  are  now  only  Bolshevist  publications  in  existence 
in  Soviet  Russia.  The  second  document,  signed  by  the  notorious 
Zinoviev,  is  of  special  interest  because  its  contents  and  even  its 
style  bring  to  mind  the  decrees  of  the  days  of  the  Tzar. 


4.— The  So-Called  "Dictatorship 
of  the  Proletariat55 

The  organ  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party, 
"Rabochy  International"  (The  Workmen's  International),  of 
August  7,  contains  an  interesting  resolution  passed  by  the  Execu- 
tive and  Petrograd  Committees  of  the  Russian  Social-Democratic 
Labor  Party  in  July  27,  1918.  The  following  are  some  extracts 
from  it: 

"The  imaginary  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  has  definitely 
turned  into  the  dictatorship  of  the  Bolshevist  Party,  which  at- 
tracts all  sorts  of  adventurers  and  suspicious  characters  and  is 
supported  only  by  the  naked  force  of  hired  bayonets.  Their 
sham  Socialism  has  resulted  in  the  complete  destruction  of 
Russia's  industry,  in  the  country's  enslavement  to  foreign  capital, 
in  the  destruction  of  all  class  organizations  of  the  proletariat,  in 
the  suppression  of  all  democratic  liberty  and  of  all  organs 
of  democratic  State  life,  thus  preparing  the  ground  for  a  bour- 
geois counter-revolution  of  the  worst  and  most  brutal  kind. 

"The  Bosheviki  are  unable  to  solve  the  food  problem,  and 
their  attempt  to  bribe  the  proletariat  by  organizing  expeditions 
into  the  villages,  in  order  to  seize  supplies  of  bread,  drives  the 
peasantry  into  the  arms  of  the  counter-revolution  and  threatens 
to  rouse  its  hatred  towards  the  town  in  general,  and  the  prole- 
tariat in  particular,  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

"In  continuing  the  struggle  against  the  Bolshevist  tyranny 
which  dishonors  the  Russian  Revolution,  Social-Democracy  pur- 
sues the  following  aims:  (1)  To  make  it  impossible  for  the 
working  class  to  have  to  shed  its  blood  for  the  sake  of  main- 
taining the  sham  dictatorship  of  the  toiling  masses  or  of  the 
sham  Socialist  order,  both  of  which  are  bound  to  perish  and  are 
meanwhile  killing  the  soul  and  body  of  the  proletariat;  (2)  To 
organize  the  working  class  into  a  force  which,  in  union  with 
other  democratic  forces  of  the  country,  will  be  able  to  throw 
off  the  yoke  of  the  Bolshevist  regime,  to  defend  the  democratic 
conquests  of  the  Revolution  and  to  oppose  any  reactionary  force 
which  would  attempt  to  hang  a  millstone  around  the  neck  of 
the  Russian  democracy." 


5. — The  Socialists-Revolutionists  of 
the  Left  Against  the  Bolsheviki 

The  well-known  Russian  revolutionist,  Vladimir  Bourtzev, 
in  his  paper  "Obscheye  Dyelo,"  published  in  Paris,  in  the  issue 
of  April  30th,  1919,  quotes  the  following  proclamation  issued  by 
the  Petrograd  Committee  of  the  Socialists-Revolutionists  of  the 
Left,  who,  until  the  Brest-Litovsk  Treason,  supported  the 
Bolsheviki.  The  proclamation  was  issued,  in  the  middle  of 
March,  1919: 

"Shame  to  the  Bolshevist  Violators,  Liars,  and  ' Agents 
Provocateurs  f 

"The  Petrograd  Soviet  does  not  express  the  will  of  the 
Workmen,  Sailors,  and  'Reds.' 

"The  Soviet  was  not  elected.  The  elections  were  either  pre- 
tenses, or  held  under  threats  of  shooting  or  starvation.  This 
terrorism  completely  suffocated  freedom  of  speech,  the  press, 
and  meetings  of  the  laboring  .classes. 

"The  Petrograd  Soviet  consists  of  self-appointed  Bolsheviki. 
It  is  a  blind  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  'agents-provacateurs/  hang- 
men and  assassins  of  the  Bolshevist  regime.  Let  this  fraudulent 
Soviet  before  the  laboring  classes  of  Russia  and  the  whole  world, 
without  reserve  or  excuses,  honorably  answer  the  following  ques- 
tions : 

"  'Where  is  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and  working 
peasantry?  It  has  been  supplanted  by  the  dictatorship  of  the 
Central  Committee  of  the  Bolshevist  Party,  governing  with  the 
assistance  of  a  swarm  of  extraordinary  commissions  and  puni- 
tive detachments  of  imported  soldiers. 

"  'What  has  become  of  the  authority  of  the  Soviets  ?  There 
is  no  authority  now  in  Soviet  Russia. 

"'Where  are  the  promised  rights  of  the  electors?  At  the 
factories  and  the  mills,  on  the  ships  and  on  the  railways,  sit  self- 
appointed  Bolshevist  commissaries  (all  until  recently  members 
of  the  Black  Hundreds),  crucifying  the  workmen  and  the  peas- 
ants at  their  own  sweet  will.  The  Revolutionary  Government  of 
the  masses  has  been  seized  by  the  Bolshevist  agents. 


16  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

"  'What  has  become  of  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press, 
particularly  the  press  of  the  peasants,  soldiers  and  sailors? 

"  'The  laboring  classes  are  not  allowed  to  congregate.  They 
are  not  permitted  to  publish  their  own  newspapers,  and  they  may 
not  utter  a  word  against  the  Bolsheviki  under  penalty  of  being 
arrested  and  shot. 

"  'Where  is  the  promised  workmen's  control  over  the  fac- 
tories and  mills  ?  It  has  been  replaced  by  self-elected  Bolshevists' 
agents;  the  Government  is  afraid  to  trust  the  workingmen.  It 
has  tied  them  down  to  their  work  and  has  established  a  new 
form  of  servile  labor. 

"  'Where  is  the  promised  socialization  of  the  land  ? 

"  'What  has  become  of  the  pledge  to  abolish  the  death  pen- 
alty ?  It  is  now  in  full  force,  at  the  front  and  at  the  rear,  not  for 
the  bourgeoisie,  but  for  the  poor. 

"  'The  Bolshevist  party,  in  their  struggle  with  the  workmen 
and  the  peasants,  are  supported  by  the  hired  bayonets  of  Letts 
and  Chinamen,  under  the  traitorous  leadership  of  certain  Russian 
officers  who  are  now  better  off  under  Lenine  than  under  the 
Tzarist  regime. 

"  'Comrades — At  the  present  moment,  of  all  the  wonderful 
edifice  of  freedom  inaugurated  by  the  November  revolution, 
there  remains  not  a  single  stone,  only  lying  words  and  tyranny.'  " 


6.=Russia  as  Seen  by  a  British 
Trade  Unionist 


A  picture  of  conditions  in  Russia,  by  an  English  working- 
man  who  was  in  Russia  from  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  until  last  January,  is  given  in  the  Westminster 
Gazette  in  an  interview,  entitled  "The  Truth  About  Russia." 
The  article  was  cabled  to  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger  and  is 
reprinted  herewith  by  special  permission.  The  Westminster  Ga- 
zette says: 

"There  has  lately  arrived  in  England  a  witness  of  the  in- 
ternal condition  of  Russia.  This  is  H.  V.  Keeling,  who  alone 
probably  of  all  Englishmen  has  seen  the  Bolshevist  movement 
from  within  and  can  report  of  his  own  knowledge  what  the 
Russian  working  class  thinks. 

"Mr.  Keeling  went  to  Russia  five  years  ago  to  teach  the 
workmen  of  a  Russian  firm  which  had  acquired  British  patents 
of  certain  new  processes  of  the  lithographic  and  printing  trades. 
For  twenty  years  previously  he  had  been  a  member  of  the 
British  Trade  Union.  He  was  admitted  to  membership  in  the 
Russian  Printing  Trade  Union  and  thus  spent  all  his  time  as  a 
workman  among  workmen. 

"In  1918  he  went  about  the  country  opening  workshops  for 
repairing  all  sorts  of  things.  In  this  way  he  made  himself  so 
useful,  not  to  say  indispensable,  that  the  Soviets  insisted  on  his 
remaining  in  the  country.  In  October  last  he  was  appointed  to 
the  position  of  Chief  Photographer  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Education,  presided  over  by  Lunacharsky,  whom  he  describes 
as  an  amiable  visionary  with  his  eyes  shut  to  the  realities  of  the 
Bolshevist  regime.  How  Keeling  finally  got  out  of  Russia  and 
the  extraordinary  adventures  and  hairbreadth  escapes  he  had  at 
the  frontier  of  Finland  cannot  be  told  yet.  The  main  fact  is  that 
he  was  in  Russia  for  the  whole  period  of  the  Revolution  until 
January  9  this  year.  Mr.  Keeling  speaks  with  singular  impartial- 
ity of  what  he  has  seen  and  heard. 

"Mr.  Kealing  says :    The  population  was  originally  divided 


18  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

by  the  Bolsheviki  into  four  categories  which  exactly  turn  upside 
down  the  social  classes  of  other  countries.  These  are  first,  man- 
ual laborers;  second,  clerical  workers,  provided  they  employ  no- 
body; third,  everybody  who  has  employed  anybody  from  a  small 
householder  employing  one  servant  to  a  manufacturer  employing 
a  thousand  hands ;  fourth,  all  former  idle  rich,  princes,  aristo- 
crats, landowners  and  courtiers  of  every  description. 

"  The  penalty  for  failing  to  please  the  Bolsheviki  is  to  be 
degraded  from  the  class  in  which  you  get  some  food  to  the  class 
in  which  you  get  scarcely  any.  In  the  last  few  months  there  has 
not  been  anything  like  enough  for  the  first  class  and  scarcely 
anything  for  the  others.  Class  IV,  the  former  rich,  I  should  say, 
has  disappeared.  They  have  either  got  out  of  the  country  or 
been  starved  to  death  or  shot  or  have  turned  themselves  into 
workmen  in  order  to  get  food. 

"  'I  cannot  tell  you  more,  for  nobody  knows.  Other 
classes  are  those  that  get  some  food  and  those  that  get 
hardly  any  officially.  To  get  food  you  must  be  in  with  the 
Bolshevists,  and  then  they  put  you  into  the  first  class. 
It  is  very  difficult  to  get  there  and  very  easy  to  get  out.  They 
degrade  you  for  slight  reasons  which  you  cannot  discover  and 
then  you  starve.  Whole  trade  unions  have  been  degraded  be- 
cause they  opposed  the  Bolsheviki  or  offended  them  somehow. 

"  'One  has  cards  and  coupons,  but  all  private  trading  is 
forbidden  and  nearly  all  the  shops  in  Petrograd  are  shut.  There 
are  a  few  hundred  municipal  shops,  and  you  are  supposed  to 
receive  half  a  pound  of  bread  a  day.  Potatoes,  butter,  meat 
and  sugar  are  fixed  at  reasonable  prices ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
for  a  long  time  past  nothing  has  been  sold  but  bread,  and  even 
that  failed  for  seven  days  in  December. 

"  'I  have  been  six  days  without  bread,  three  days  without 
anything  to  eat  except  the  so-called  public  dinner,  which  con- 
sisted of  watery  soup,  a  small  piece  of  salt  fish  and  one-eighth 
of  a  pound  of  bread.  Sometimes  they  offered  me  oats,  as  if  I 
were  a  horse,  when  there  was  no  bread.  All  children  are  in  the 
first-class,  for  the  Bolshevist  idea  is  that  all  children  should  be 
charges  of  the  State  while  their  parents  go  to  work,  but  the 
children  are  starving  in  great  numbers. 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism  19 

"  'If  you  are  not  in  the  first  class  or  are  degraded  from  it 
you  have  to  prowl  about  and  try  to  get  food  secretly;  but  this 
is  a  punishable  offense,  for  which  sometimes  people  may  even  be 
shot.  People  go  to  the  country,  taking  anything  they  think  the 
peasants  will  take  in  exchange  for  food  and  get  a  bag  of  flour 
or  a  few  potatoes.  But  it  is  illegal  to  go  out  of  town  without  a 
permit  or  to  try  anything  when  you  get  there,  so  the  Red  Guards 
stop  them  and  search  them  as  they  come  back,  and  if  they  find 
anything  confiscate  it  and  often  arrest  the  people  and  carry  them 
off. 

"  'I  saw  a  woman  who  had  gone  to  the  country  and  got 
thirty  pounds  of  flour  from  her  own  native  place  for  her  chil- 
dren, who  were  starving.  She  was  seized  by  the  Guards  at 
the  station  when  she  was  trying  to  get  back,  and  they  took  it 
from  her,  although  she  fell  on  her  knees  and  implored  them 
with  sobs  to  let  her  keep  only  a  few  pounds. 

"  'Then  when  she  found  it  was  no  use  she  threw  herself 
under  a  train  and  was  killed. 

"  'It  makes  it  worse  that  you  have  quantities  of  money  in 
your  pocket  but  can  buy  nothing.  I  have  had  rubles  worth 
£600  ($3,000)  in  my  pocket  and  have  not  been  able  to  buy  a 
piece  of  bread.  You  don't  trouble  about  money.  You  pay  5 
shilling  ($1.25)  for  a  lump  of  sugar  if  you  can  get  it.  A  work- 
man's wages  are  £100  ($500)  a  month  at  the  old  value,  but 
though  he  can  still  buy  a  watch  for  £5  ($25)  he  cannot  buy  a 
loaf  of  bread  for  £50  ($250).  People  who  have  food  will  not 
sell  it  for  rubles  because  they  are  worth  nothing  and  there  is 
nothing  to  buy  with  them,  so  the  Bolsheviki  cannot  get  food 
though  they  are  trying  to  and  having  fights  with  the  peasants 
in  consequence. 

"  'I  believe  myself  there  is  enough  food  in  Russia  to  keep 
everyone  alive,  for  the  last  harvest  was  good,  but  it  cannot  be 
got  and  it  is  all  being  hoarded  and  concealed. 

"  'Nine-tenths  of  the  people  who  keep  in  with  the  Bolsheviki 
have  to  pretend  to  like  them  and  would  do  anything  to  get  rid 
of  them  if  they  knew  how,  but  you  have  to  remember  the 
Bolsheviki  are  clever,  feeding  the  people  who  are  likely  to  fight. 
Every  man  who  joins  the  Red  Army  is  sure  of  his  own  food,  also 


20  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

gets  food  for  his  wife  and  children.  The  army  is  fed  before 
anyone  else  and  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  other  classes.  Even 
workmen  get  nothing  until  the  army  has  had  enough,  so  large 
numbers  of  men  join  the  army  for  the  sake  of  getting  food  and 
then  have  to  keep  at  it  for  fear  of  losing  their  food.  Besides 
if  they  try  any  tricks  they  not  only  are  punished  and  shot  them- 
selves, but  their  wives,  families  and  parents  are  starved. 

"  'A  man  will  stand  almost  anything  rather  than  see  his 
wife,  children  and  parents  starved  to  death,  and  the  use  they 
make  of  this  kind  of  coercion  is  devilish.  Soldiers  have  to  be 
careful,  for  there  are  lots  of  spies  among  them.  Then  besides 
the  regular  Red  Army  there  is  a  special  picked  army,  which  gets 
everything  it  wants,  food  or  anything  else,  and  all  these  men 
know  if  they  don't  fight  they  will  starve,  so  they  fight  to  save 
their  own  food  and  to  prevent  their  wives  and  children  from 
starving.  That  is  their  way  of  keeping  alive.' 

"How  can  men  at  the  top,  Lenine,  Trotsky  and  the  rest, — 
Lenine  at  all  events  is  supposed  to  have  some  intelligence  and 
humanity — sit  there  and  let  this  go  on?  Are  they  devils  or 
maniacs?"  Keeling  was  asked. 

"I  suppose  you  would  say  they  are  quite  sane  according  to  our 
notions,  but  as  things  are  they  cannot  help  themselve  and  could 
not  stop  it  if  they  chose.  They  have  made  monstrous  areas  help- 
less. Bolshevism  is,  in  fact,  become  a  vested  interest  for  its 
privileged  class,  and  Lenine  and  Trotsky  are  obliged  to  go  on 
feeding  a  few,  starving  the  many  and  shooting  objectors." 

Asked  how  men  could  be  found  who  would  go  on  day  after 
day  administering  this  diabolical  system  with  this  spectacle  of 
helpless  misery  under  their  eyes,  Mr.  Keeling  said: 

"Most  of  them  are  quite  young,  some  notorious  bad  charac- 
ters, many  mere  boys  whom  we  should  call  hooligans.  One  boy 
of  17  I  knew  was  a  commissary  with  the  power  of  life  and  death 
over  forty  villages.  He  goes  about  with  a  pistol,  and  one  day 
thrust  it  in  my  face,  threatening  to  shoot  me  on  the  spot.  I 
knew  how  to  deal  with  him,  but  the  Russian  peasants  do  not. 
As  seen,  such  lads  are  terrorizing  whole  districts." 

Keeling  admits  frankly  that  he  was  attracted  by  the  Bolshe- 
vist idea,  and  hoped  at  onetime  it  might  be  good  for  Russia  if 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism  21 

not  for  the  world  in  general.  He  was  asked  what  has  happened 
to  the  Russian  people. 

"Is  Bolshevism  as  black  as  it  is  painted,  and  if  it  is,  how  can 
the  whole  nation  submit  to  it?"  He  said  in  answer:  "The 
Russian  people  are  starving,  and  when  you  are  starv 
ing  you  do  not  think  about  other  atrocities:  you  think  about 
nothing  except  just  food  to  keep  yourself  alive.  You 
do  not  trouble  much  whether  you  are  going  to  be  shot  your- 
self or  whether  other  people  are  being  shot.  You  are  collecting 
food  like  an  animal.  I  left  Russia  six  weeks  ago,  but  even  now 
I  cannot  get  over  the  habit  of  thinking  about  my  food,  and 
every  day  I  find  myself  wondering  where  the  next  meal  is  to 
come  from." 

Keeling  expanded  on  this  idea.  "And  on  the  one  side  mil- 
lions of  people  too  absorbed  with  the  ravening  thought  how  to 
get  food  for  themselves,  their  wives  and  children  to  think  of  any- 
thing beyond  the  movement,  too  exhausted  to  resist;  on  the 
other  hand,  a  favored  few  relatively  well-fed  persons  prepared 
for  any  violence  or  cruelty  to  save  themselves  from  losing  their 
privilege  and  slipping  into  the  vortex  of  famine.  For,  whatever 
may  be  in  the  original  idea  of  Bolshevism,"  as  Keeling  explained, 
"it  is  simply  that  it  confers  upon  some  and  denies  to  others  the 
privilege  of  eating,  and  that  all  its  other  deeds  of  violence  and 
cruelty  are  as  nothing  to  the  supreme  cruelty  of  withholding 
food."  Keeling  went  on  to  explain  the  system,  describing  it 
without  color  or  emotion,  as  if  living  in  that  world  he  had  come 
to  take  its  horrors  for  granted. 

"The  peasants  have  got  rid  of  their  landlords  and 
sat  down  and  divided  the  land,"  continued  Keeling.  "They 
have  quarreled  a  good  deal,  but  on  the  whole  did  it  sensibly, 
each  taking  a  bit  of  the  best  land,  then  another  bit  of  worse, 
and  so  on.  But,  while  there  was  plenty  of  land  for  one 
village,  there  was  nothing  like  enough  in  another,  so 
the  distribution  was  very  unequal  and  there  was  great 
discontent.  Instead  of  having  the  splendid  time  they  hoped  for, 
they  find  there  is  nothing  to  buy  and  they  are  always  being 
worried  and  threatened  by  the  Bolsheviki.  They  have  no  tea,  no 
vodka,  no  tobacco;  they  feel  the  loss  of  tobacco  especially,  and 


22  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

seem  to  walk  about  in  a  dazed  condition,  like  men  used  to  drugs, 
who  had  suddenly  to  go  without.  Peasants  have  implored  me  to 
give  them  tobacco. 

"Peasants  work  only  just  as  much  as  they  must  to  keep 
themselves  alive.  The  next  harvest  is  likely  to  be  very  bad  and 
then  famine,  which  now  exists  in  the  towns,  will  begin  to  spread 
over  the  country,  and  one  dare  not  think  what  will  happen  then. 

"My  own  belief  is  they,  Lenine  and  Trotzky,  know  the 
game  is  up,  but  do  not  know  how  to  get  out  of  it  or  what  to  do. 
The  slightest  sign  of  weakening  and  they  are  done.  So  they 
simply  go  ahead,  grinding  out  everybody  they  think  dangerous. 
Even  the  advanced  Socialists  are  beginning  to  speak  of  Czardom 
as  the  good  old  times. 

"It  is  terrible  to  live  in  Russia  these  times.  As  you  walk  in 
Petrograd  you  never  see  anyone  laugh  or  smile ;  men  and  women 
are  like  shadows;  little  children  are  so  wasted  they  seem  to  be 
all  eyes.  All  the  time  people  are  disappearing;  nobody  knows 
what  becomes  of  them.  Five  years  ago  Petrograd  had  a  popu- 
lation of  2,400,000;  now  there  are  scarcely  700,000. 

"I  have  no  personal  animosity  against  the  Bolsheviki.  They 
treated  me  as  well  as  they  could,  but  I  am  a  working  man,  a 
trade  unionist,  and  I  don't  like  to  hear  British  working  men 
talking  as  if  Bolshevism  was  a  great  and  splendid  experiment 
to  be  copied  by  other  countries,  or  as  if  they  were  helping  the 
working  people  of  Russia  by  saying  no  to  all  proposals  now  be- 
fore the  Allies  for  dealing  with  it.  I  want  to  convince  them 
it  is  not  a  question  of  politics  or  theory,  but  just  a  question  of 
humanity  on  which  we  have  got  to  do  our  duty  and  help.  There, 
is  enormous  suffering  and  misery  which  we  ought  to  stop  if 
we  can. 

"I  want  to  say  also  that  it  won't  do  the  Socialists  any  good 
to  mix  up  with  the  Bolsheviki  and  make  people  think  that  if 
Socialism  is  tried  it  must  end  in  wholesale  murder  and  starv- 
ing millions  of  people  to  death,  but  that  is  what  will  happen  if 
the  working  people  confuse  Socialism  with  Bolshevism  and  sup- 
pose that  Socialism  must  support  the  Bolsheviki." 


7. — An  Appeal  to  the  American 
People 

The  following  appeal  to  the  American  people  has  been  pub- 
lished in  the  American  press,  signed,  among  others,  by  Nicholas 
Tchaikovsky,  the  President  of  the  Archangel  Government  and 
the  leader  of  the  Party  of  People's  Socialists;  Vladimir  I. 
Lebedev,  former  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  the  Russian  Provision- 
al Government,  a  member  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  and  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Party  of  Socialists-Revolutionists,  and 
Alexander  Titov,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Party  of  the  People's 
Socialists  and  a  representative  of  the  All-Russian  League  of 
Municipalities  and  Zemstvos;  Vladimir  Bourtzev,  and  Boris 
Savenkov : 

"All  the  elements  of  our  country  which  are  striving  for  a 
new,  free  and  democratic  Russia  are  united  in  the  struggle 
against  the  common  enemy  of  freedom,  democracy  and  culture. 
In  the  name  of  the  holy  war  against  barbarism  and  in  the 
name  of  the  regeneration  of  our  country  we  appeal  to  the  great 
democracy  of  the  New  World.  Our  first  need  is  the  moral 
support  of  the  American  democracy,  which  cannot  approve  of 
the  numberless  unspeakable  crimes  against  the  Russian  people 
which  have  been  and  are  now  being  committed  by  the  Bolshe- 
vist  despotism.  • 

"We  rely  on  the  support  of  the  American  people  in  our 
struggle  for  self-government,  which,  as  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try and  every  country  shows,  can  be  obtained  only  through  a 
constituent  assembly  elected  by  universal,  equal  suffrage.  We 
rely  also  on  your  practical  help  in  the  shape  of  food,  arms  and 
munitions,  which  you  so  largely  furnished  to  the  Entente  be- 
fore your  entrance  into  the  war. 

"We  have  to  equip  and  arm  volunteer  armies.  We  must 
care  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  we  ask  you  to  send  us  medi- 
cal supplies  and  Red  Cross  materials.  We  have  to  restore  our 
economic  life,  which  has  practically  ceased  in  territories  occu- 
pied by  the  Bolsheviki  and  the  Huns.    The  reports  of  the  Bolshe- 


24  Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism 

viki's  finance  ministers  show  that  the  number  of  cars  and  loco- 
motives— woefully  deficient  at  the  beginning  of  the  Bolshevist 
tyranny — has  been  reduced  by  a  little  more  than  half  under  their 
deadly  and  devastating  rule. 

"The  Russian  peasants  not  only  have  been  systematically 
robbed  of  their  grain  by  expeditions  of  the  Red  Guards,  but  are 
without  tools  or  agricultural  implements.  We  rely  on  America 
for  locomotives,  cars,  agricultural  machinery  and  technical  sup- 
plies. 

"Above  all  we  rely  on  the  American  democracy  to  aid  the 
million  Russian  prisoners  still  starved  and  worked  to  death  in 
Germany.  If  they  are  returned  to  Russia  they  will  be  slaughtered 
on  the  frontier  or  forced  under  the  guns  of  Chinese  and  Lettish 
mercenaries  to  enter  the  Red  Army  and  fight  against  the  Rus- 
sian people.  Consider  the  disgrace  to  all  civilized  mankind  if 
this  alternative  is  left  to  those  who  fought  in  the  common  cause 
of  world  peace. 

"The  first  political  success  of  the  Bolsheviki  was  the  disso- 
lution of  our  first  and  only  democratically  elected  Constituent 
Assembly,  which  for  fifty  years  has  been  the  goal  of  all  Rus- 
sians— even  of  the  Bolsheviki  up  to  the  moment  when  they 
found  it  overwhelmingly  against  them.  Then  they  invented  a 
new  double  name  for  their  antidemocratic  government:  Soviets, 
or  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat.  Next  they  dissolved  all  the 
democratic  Municipal  Councils  and  Zemstvos  and  proceeded  to 
take  away  all  other  liberties  won  by  the  great  march  of  the 
Revolution:  freedom  of  the  press,  free  speech  and  the  right 
of  assemblage.  All  political  parties,  including  the  Socialist, 
which  opposed  minority  rule,  were  then  outlawed  and  their  lead- 
ing members  killed,  imprisoned  or  driven  into  exile. 

"This  dictatorship  led  rapidly  to  an  almost  complete  stop- 
page of  industry.  Yet  governmental  expenditures  increased  with 
the  growing  pauperization  of  the  people.  This  is  due  to  three 
causes :  first,  the  growing  staff  of  utterly  incompetent  Bolshevist 
officials;  second,  the  growing  army  of  mercenaries  to  keep  down 
the  ever-spreading  insurrections;  and,  third,  the  enormous  sub- 
sidies paid  to  Bolshevist  workingmen  regardless  of  the  fact  that 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism  25 

the  factories  are  producing  sometimes  little  and  sometimes 
nothing. 

"Finally,  the  scheme  of  extending  Lenine's  paradise  to  the 
whole  world  by  force  of  arms — which,  it  is  repeatedly  pro- 
claimed, gives  the  only  hope  of  Bolshevism's  continued  existence 
— necessitates  other  monstrous  expenditures  by  his  bankrupt  gov- 
ernment. Political  and  economic  slavery,  moral  corruption  and 
starvation  of  millions  of  people,  will  be  the  results  of  this 
monstrous  chaos  and  misrule.  This  new  Tzarism,  like  the  old, 
can  be  stopped  only  by  deeds.  We  are  doing  our  part.  Every 
democrat  in  Russia  is  ready  and  willing  to  die  for  the  cause. 
But  we  are  utterly  helpless  without  your  aid. 

"People  of  America,  we  appeal  to  you  not  as  beggars,  but 
as  brothers.  Democratic  Russia  will  repay  every  cent  she  bor- 
rows in  this  time  of  sorrow  and  horror.  We  are  not  ashamed 
to  stretch  out  our  hand  under  these  conditions,  and  we  can- 
fidently  expect  to  get  not  a  stone,  but  bread.  Russia  must  be 
liberated  or  there  will  be  no  world  peace.  Russia  must  be 
effectively  helped  or  the  League  of  Nations  will  fail.  The 
United  States  of  America  must  help  to  create  a  United  States 
of  Russia  to  link  the  whole  world  in  a  chain  of  free,  demo- 
cratic nations." 


8- — What  the  Russian  Democracy 
is  Fighting  For 

The  united  democratic  and  labor  forces  of  Russia  that  are 
righting  the  Bolsheviki  have  adopted  the  following  working  pro- 
gram for  the  regeneration  of  Russia.  This  program  was  formu- 
lated by  Katherine  Breshkovsky,  the  "grandmother  of  the  Russian 
Revolution,"  and  has  received  the  unqualified  support  of  all  the 
truly  democratic  and  revolutionary  elements  of  Russia: 

"(1)  The  reestablishment  of  all  civil  liberties;  (a)  freedom 
of  speech,  (b)  of  the  press,  (c)  of  assembly,  (d)  of  association, 
(e)  inviolability  of  person,  residence  and  mail,  (f)  freedom  of 
religion, — on  the  basis  of  the  temporary  laws  passed  by  the 
Russian  Provisional  Government. 

"(2)  The  reestablishment  of  municipal  and  rural  (Zemstvo) 
self-government  on  the  basis  of  the  laws  passed  by  the  Russian 
Provisional  Government. 

"(3)  The  summoning  in  the  briefest  possible  time  of  an 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly  on  the  basis  of  the  election 
law  promulgated  by  the  Provisional  Government. 

"(4)  The  proclamation  of  Russia  as  a  democratic,  federated 
Republic. 

"(5)  The  resumption  of  the  work  of  the  Committees  as- 
signed to  prepare  the  plans  for  the  organization  of  regional 
Dumas  (Siberia,  Ural,  Northern  Provinces,  Southern  Provinces, 
etc.),  and  the  renewal  of  the  functioning  of  the  Regional  Gov- 
ernments. 

"(6)  The  recognition  of  the  transition  of  the  land  to  the 
toiling  masses,  pending  the  final  solution  of  the  land  problem  by 
the  Constituent  Assembly,  and  the  transfer  of  the  administration 
of  agrarian  affairs  to  the  proper  Zemstvo  institutions. 

"(7)  The  recognition  of  the  nationalization  of  forests, 
waters  and  the  substrata  of  the  soil,  pending  action  by  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly. 

"(8)  The  State  control  of  industry  in  cooperation  with  the 
Zemstvos   and  workers5  organizations. 


Russian  Labor  Against  Bolshevism  27 

"(9)  Decisive  encouragement  and  help  to  Cooperatives  and 
to  the  Zemstvos  by  the  Government.  The  immediate  organiza- 
tion of  trade  and  industry. 

"(10)  Autonomy  for  nationalities  in  Russia  on  the  basis 
of  the  laws  passed  by  the  Russian  Provisional  Government. 

"(11)  The  recognition  of  the  separation  of  Church  from 
State. 

"(12)  The  organization  of  an  effective  Army  on  the  basis 
of  the  soldier's  retention  of  his  rights  as  a  man  and  a  citizen. 

"(13)  The  declaration  as  null  and  void  of  all  the  decrees 
of  the  Bolsheviki,  with  the  adoption  of  a  policy  of  gradual  transi- 
tion from  conditions  under  their  regime  to  the  newly  moulded 
forms,  on  the  basis  of  temporary  regulations  to  be  ordained 
either  by  the  future  Provisional  Government  or  by  the  Con- 
stituent Assembly. 

"(14)  Immediate  amnesty  to  all  political  prisoners,  if  their 
offenses  have  no  taint  of  criminality. 

"The  time  for  despotism  and  the  suppression  of  the  ideas 
and  strivings  of  the  people  towards  a  decent  human  life  is  gone 
forever.  We  cannot  save  Russia  without  sincere  service  to  the 
ideals  of  freedom.  We  are  prepared  to  give  her  all  freely,  un- 
hesitatingly and  without  fear  of  sacrifice." 


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